Comments on: The one where I pretend that this is Fametracker

By: seth

seth — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 23:45:20 +0000

The various bits of album art for In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel) are really something - very whimsical-creepy in an old-timey children's-book way, which is very much in keeping with the album's tone - harrowing and intimate and nostalgic. Also quite appropriate to the tone of the album is the really stunning, simple art for Moon Pix (Cat Power), which is just a heartbreaking album. In more uplifting album art, and also notable in the yellowness category, is The Coast is Never Clear. (Beulah) Everything Spoon does is A-OK with me.

By: lth

lth — Sat, 29 May 2004 01:00:54 +0000

Does anyone ever actually bother reading other people’s comments on such topics? Or do they just spout their own opinion? Anyway, the answer is clearly Come Clean by Curve.

By: robbo

robbo — Fri, 28 May 2004 21:15:31 +0000

Thanks, Terry—I checked out the Weakerthans and took a shining to them; bought a couple used CD’s cheap at Amazon! p.s. What am I doing wrong that this site refuses to “Remember personal info”? I click Yes every time but it never remembers…

By: Chris Martin

Chris Martin — Fri, 28 May 2004 16:07:57 +0000

In the classical genre, I'd suggest LP's on the now defunct Crossroads label such as: this this this, and this.

By: Terry

Terry — Fri, 28 May 2004 15:22:55 +0000

Ooooh! Damn! A sea!

By: Terry

Terry — Fri, 28 May 2004 15:19:06 +0000

My vote goes to The Weakerthans' "Reconstruction Site" (big pic, little pic). Two women in 1950s nurse uniforms stand beside a bear/guy in a bear suit and look out over a see of sleeping/dead men and bears/guys in bear suits. What more could you expect from a CD on which a retired explorer talks about his good buddy Shackleton while trying to politely remove himself from a conversation with Michel Foucault; where a seriously ill person asks for help in order to get the privacy to pray? If you've never heard of them, go here and get a free version of their song, "Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call."

By: pepi

pepi — Fri, 28 May 2004 09:19:57 +0000

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Why? Because. I don’t know. It’s not crowded, it’s neat, clean lines. The buildings look like beehives. It somehow makes sense with the moods of the songs. There’s a couple of lines like “buildings shake voices escape singing sad sad songs” and “skyscrapers scraping together” in one track, but it’s not a reference to the obvious. It’s songs on personal relationships, whatever, the usual stuff of songs. The album was written and recorded before Sept. 2001. So the cover photo also has that spooky quality without being meant to. I like that.

By: swoosh

swoosh — Fri, 28 May 2004 06:58:13 +0000

swoooosh, it’s a Nike ad, suckaaaah

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 28 May 2004 05:00:30 +0000

I really like the cover of Riow Arai's Mind Edit Syndicate. The colours are just mellow enough to avoid being aggressive, but the scissors tell a different story. Also reflects the content (mellow funk sounds cut up and reassembled into spikey beats, may Pitchfork have mercy on my soul for writing that) very well.

By: Richard Bellamy

Richard Bellamy — Fri, 28 May 2004 04:30:08 +0000

In my limited experience over the past several years, I’m going to go with “InFINity” by Trout Fishing in America. My oldest child is three. Why InFINity? It is simple: 1. It is not actually a representation of Infinity. 2. It is jokey without being witty. 3. How many more fish could there be? Several more. The entire left side of the cover is underutilized. 4. Although the intended pun in obvious (and capitalized) the fish pictured are actually drawn without fins. 5. The smallest fish—the one who is saying “InFINity”—is actually breaking the infinite chain by not eating a smaller fish. And he looks very happy about it.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 28 May 2004 03:15:29 +0000

By the way, 4AD should definitely win the best of record company category. Their consistency is amazing. Much of it was the work of the disgustingly good Vaughan Oliver. I'd vote for Neko Case's Furnace Room Lullaby, but I may simply be biased because she is both a great singer and real purty. I think De Stijl was pretty good, too -- a somewhat gimmicky cover for a somewhat gimmicky band, but it's memorable and clever. Neither, however, was the least bit yellow. (And the work done by Fireproof Press for assorted indie labels and the DC label Simple Machines was consistantly impressive, but both are sadly defunct.)

By: david

david — Fri, 28 May 2004 01:37:49 +0000

Do album containers count? If so: Quantazelle’s “Coaster.” It comes in a “coaster-container” and includes a slip of paper on which directions for using the cd as a drink coaster are printed.

By: robbo

robbo — Fri, 28 May 2004 01:35:57 +0000

Little by Vic Chesnutt is a classic, although now 10 years old so maybe not current enough. Eels had a great run, especially with Beautiful Freak, but their last effort -- Shootenany -- inexplicably incorporated a plain, black, boring cover.

By: Paul N.

Paul N. — Fri, 28 May 2004 01:31:19 +0000

Heh, totally randomly I was going to suggest Spoon’s “A Series of Sneaks” for best cover art, then clicked on the comment thread…I think we’re biased by the fact that Spoon is such a rad band!

By: fafnir

fafnir — Thu, 27 May 2004 23:35:20 +0000

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. The title says it all and the cover says the title. There is Yoshimi! There is the pink robot. You just know they are going to battle and it is gonna get all crazy like that.